Underwater Balconies
by Rendered Reversed
Summary: !Magical!Hogwarts!AU! Because sometimes, Harry knows he has to play the Romeo in his relationship with Tom, even if his boyfriend makes a terribly stubborn Juliet. That Tom doesn't have a balcony… well. He'll make do somehow. Oneshot, TMR/HP SLASH


**Warnings: **magical Hogwarts AU, liberal butchering of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, quoting poetry, sap, fluff, Tom-centric, Tom is a good guy, Harry is a good guy, Dumbledore doesn't make an appearance so he doesn't matter, Voldemort doesn't exist

**Pairing**: established TMR/HP (Tom Marvolo Riddle/Harry Potter)

**Summary:** Because sometimes, Harry knows he has to play the Romeo in his relationship with Tom, even if his boyfriend makes a terribly stubborn Juliet. That Tom doesn't have a balcony… well. He'll make do somehow._  
_

**Disclaimer**: J.K. Rowling is amazing for not only making the Harry Potter universe for us, but also giving Slytherins windows despite the fact that their dormitory is underwater. Obviously, I apologize for butchering William Shakespeare's balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, but I swear everyone has to have a go at it, so... **Yeah I'm butchering poetry. I'm fully aware.**

* * *

**T**om rolls onto his other side for the _n_th time this night. He wants sleep, _needs it_ because he knows he hasn't been getting enough, but the persnickety state eludes him despite all attempts to catch it. It isn't his bed, which is perfectly comfortable and rather large—he _is_ a sixth year Slytherin, after all, and the space down in the dungeons allows for such private rooms to the upper years—nor his state, for he was fatigued during the day and feels it even more acutely with little to do.

It's his mind, actually. It runs and runs, and Tom himself finds he can hardly keep up with it. Not in the state that he's in.

That afternoon he'd had a bit of a… _quarrel _with his boyfriend of two years, Harry Potter. It'd been something about his study habits with exams so near, and something about having to eat food and how he wasn't really doing it, but Tom hardly remembers their exact argument.

He doesn't like fighting with Harry. Not like _that_.

Tom generally keeps to himself. He's "friends" with everyone, and no one all at the same time. He is polite, helpful when asked, and has perfect manners and a level head in _all_ situations. At least, that's what everyone sees, and is exactly why he's been Prefect since fifth year. No matter how much the Headmaster distrusted him.

But Harry… Harry wasn't like that.

They're in two different houses, two _warring_ houses. His boyfriend is a Gryffindor, and a proud one. Harry's seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and he does a fantastic job at it. Red is one of his favorite colors, despite knowing green looks better on him. Tom usually takes advantage of the fact to wrangle his boyfriend into something more… _Slytherin_ on the occasion that he can.

Which is few and far. No one knows that they're dating, after all.

Hell, no one even knew when they'd been _friends_. Or that they'd spoken more than twenty words to each other. Both of them prefer it this way for the privacy it gives, but sometimes Harry is tired of lying to his friends and Tom is furiously jealous of all the girls free to pander and flirt about his boyfriend. And then _those_ pent up emotions find their release in any petty matter, which explodes into a full-blown argument that nearly comes to blows—which, in all honesty, they normally enjoy in a mock duel, but there's a difference between that and _this_—but thankfully doesn't.

It's only the risk of getting caught that stops them.

Tom rolls over again, and this time he succumbs to the urge and curls up into a ball, one of Harry's favorite positions but never his own. He doesn't like fighting because he can hardly remember what they fight _about_, so he can't even properly apologize if he _is_ wrong—Tom doesn't think he _is_, but having Harry around has proved he can't always be right.

And it's frustrating, because he wants his boyfriend here with him and he _can't_ be, because he's a Gryffindor and they're fighting so it's not like Harry will sneak in with his Invisibility Cloak anytime soon. They hadn't had a proper conversation in a _week_, never mind a kiss, and finally when they _do_ find the time for each other—Tom, _Tom_ finds the time because Harry doesn't care too much for obsessive studying—they end up yelling and screaming their heads off.

Tom feels sick just thinking about it, sick and _angry_ and he needs to blow something up because that's the only way he knows how to calm down.

Honestly, it really _sucks_ to have his boyfriend be his best friend at the same time. When they fight, he feels so _alone_, and to top it all off he knows Harry couldn't _possibly_ feel the same way, since he has _friends_ and everyone in Gryffindor likes him, hell he's friends with people _out of his house _too, and it just really, really _sucks_ to have to stay away.

But Tom does because he's prideful, because he's scared, because he can be a coward when it matters most, and because he doesn't think he'd ever be able to recover should Harry reject him. So usually, their fights boil down to Harry coming to _him_, and then what happens afterward fully depends on the situation. Sometimes Harry apologizes, sometimes Tom does, and sometimes they both agree to disagree and are all the more closer for it, but the waiting time is always the most terrible part of it all.

And it's not going to end anytime soon, since they just fought _today_.

Sometimes, Tom hates himself.

He wants to hug and cuddle with his boyfriend, wants to talk with him, wants to make him blush and stutter, wants to make up for lost time because even if he does it, he doesn't _like_ reviewing things he already knows about, and honestly he _much_ prefers Harry's company to standard textbooks. He…

He's just never told his boyfriend that.

Tom's _almost_ found a restless sleep, but all mighty Founders above don't even grant him _that_. There's a _tap_ sound nearby, and his wand is in his hand before he even wonders where it came from.

Tom's eyes are wide open now, his body tense and ready to send a deadly curse at whomever's disturbed his _almost_-sleep, but nothing happens for a whole minute. So he tries to relax.

_Tap_.

_Tap tap._

Tom is silent in the dark. His ears twitch, trying to find the source of the sound, or at least the direction of it, but he can't say he knows. The wooden yew wand is still strong in his tightened grip, and he feels it pulse in reassurance at the agitation in his magic. It's not a sure sign, but at least Tom knows whatever's nearby isn't aiming for his life.

_Tap._

Merlin be damned, now he's just irritated! Couldn't whatever it is let him _rest_? There were still subjects to go over tomorrow, and he'd probably be crammed in the library despite it being a Hogsmeade weekend—something he _should've_ spent with Harry, sneaking away into the outer parts of town, but it's not like _that_'ll happen now—which just makes it worse, and _now_ there's some blasted _noise_ coming from _Salazar knew where_?!

_Tap._

Tom leaps from his bed and wrenches away the curtains covering his window. He knows where he sound is coming from, and he was going to blast the stupid water sprites through the glass if they were _really_—

…Oh.

Tom blinks. He hadn't expected to see his boyfriend in front of him, in nothing but a pair of swim trunks despite the frigid temperatures of the Lake this time of year, looking incredibly apologetic with his stupid green eyes and messy hair.

The sight _almost_ made Tom forget he was angry. _Almost_. He remembers after a beat, and then pulls the curtains closed again determined to ignore his stupid aching heart and the pounding in his ears and what his brain is—stupidly—telling him. Needless to say it doesn't really work, even when he climbs back into bed.

_Tap._

Just ignore it.

_Tap_.

He'll go away.

_Tap._

Doesn't he know what time it is?

_Tap_.

He's—he's still cross with him!

_Tap_. _Tap tap._

…Stupid, _ridiculous_ Harry Potter! Tom gets back up and pulls the curtains apart again, only to see his boyfriend's pleading eyes and his two hands pressed up against the glass. It's a dreadfully tempting sight, what with his bare chest and the fact that he chanced the Lake instead of using his Invisibility Cloak to get to Tom, but…

_Sorry_, Harry writes using his finger. Some of the letters are facing the wrong way as he tries to write mirrored, but Tom can make it out through the condensation on the glass. He watches as Harry writes, _Are you okay?_

Tom doesn't even deign that a proper answer. He levels a glare at his boyfriend that he knows will be understood as, "I was _trying_ to _sleep_. It's _three in the morning_. What do _you_ think?"

_Tom_—Harry's finger starts to write, but he can't take it anymore. The Slytherin slides the curtains closed again, because it's _just not fair_. Harry's not supposed to do romantic things like dive into the freezing waters with nothing but a bubble-head charm and a heating spell. The later probably isn't even effective in the Lake, as the artificial warmth wouldn't be enough at this time of year. Only the toughest of creatures remained unaffected in the Black Lake's late autumn months.

Tom waits. He doesn't hear any tapping anymore, but he still stands there like a fool with his window covered and his cheeks warmer than they should be.

He's probably the only person who thinks this is romantic anyway, and it's hardly even _that_—just Harry being a stupid Gryffindor who doesn't think _any_ of his plans through and that's why they never work especially not on Tom and—

He resolutely waits a whole five minutes. There's a tiny clock that ticks down in his head, just counting away the time, and Tom puts way more focus on it than he should if only to clear his thoughts from anything else. When the five minutes pass, he's decidedly calmer, but his heart's pounding is still a rapid pace in his chest, and Tom's determined to keep his face hard and stone cold because he's _supposed_ to be incredibly cross right now.

He pulls the curtains aside slowly, expecting his window's view to be nothing but a wide expanse of water.

Instead, he sees words, and a sheepish Harry.

_But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?_ is written in Harry's slanted, messy script, carefully mirrored other than the first 'B' and 'h' so Tom can read it in relative ease.

Tom can't believe the _nerve_ of his boyfriend. Seriously, _muggle literature_?

…Aside from the fact that Tom has a secret stash in his trunk that they may or may not have read together cuddled up on his bed—

Harry's smile turns impish, and with a wave of his hand, the words disappear—_wandless magic,_ _that cheeky little shit_, Tom thinks reluctantly fond—and he begins to write again with a crease in his forehead to show how concentrated he was on getting all the letters to face the right way.

H_e speaks yet _h_e says nothing: what of that?_

"Are you _serious_," Tom hisses under his breath to himself, but by the way Harry's eyes brighten with mischief it's almost like he hears it. The Slytherin makes sure to glare in a sort of "_piss off_" way, but all Harry does is wave his hand again and start writing.

_Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,_

_Having some business, do entreat h_is_ eyes_

_To twinkle in their spheres till they return__._

This time, Tom slams his hand against the window with little fear that it'll break, the action instead serving to catch Harry's attention. Tom is _very_ careful when he glares right into those green eyes and enounces, slowly to be understood, "_Stop_."

Harry bites his lip. Tom is determined not to waver in that direction, and is only brought out of his mean expression when his boyfriend shakes his head rapidly in the water.

"_No_?" he spits out incredulously, "Are you _serious_ right now Harry, what the _hell do you mean_ by _no_—"His words come out with greater speed than Harry's amateur lip reading can decipher. Instead of asking Tom to repeat that, Harry simply begins to write again.

_Thou art_

_As glorious to this night, being o'er my head_

_As is a winged messenger of heaven_

_When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds_

_And sails upon the bosom of the air._

"You are _not_ allowed to quote Shakespeare to me!" Tom growls again despite the fact Harry can't hear him at all. He slams his hand against the glass again, but all Harry does is wait until Tom has finished reading before waving his hand and continue writing again.

No matter how much Tom hisses and snarls, Harry does not stop. In fact, all Tom can do is stand there, and watch how Harry's brow furrows, how it relaxes, how he brightens when he remembers something, or some plan has come up in his mind, for Tom still doesn't know where the Gryffindor is taking this. Harry's gentle smile tells him this is past flattery.

_'Tis but thy _nature_ that is my enemy_, he writes, and this time there are no mistakes in his mirrored script. Apparently, Harry's gotten the hang of it.

_Thou art thyself, though not with thy _Pride_._

_What's _Pride_? it is nor hand, nor foot,_

_Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part_

_Belonging to a man._

Curiously, Harry drew a line between this line and the next. Tom, bemused, quieted and watched with baited breath for what his boyfriend would do next.

Tis but the excess that is labeled Pride!

A man's true fault here doth the blame lie,

But blame it I cannot in truth, for love

Is what I fear am blinded by. O had

My love been less for thee my blame would blind,

But as it not have yet,

All I possess is my heart's heavy weight.

It takes several erases to get all of it down on the window, Harry checking Tom's expression just to see whether or not he was finished reading, but by the end of it Tom feels even worse. And it isn't even because—

Tom flicks his wand, and writes in his spindly script the mirrored words of, "You butchered Shakespeare for me?" in the air.

Harry's smile is full of relief. _Everyone has to do it once_, he writes quickly on the window before erasing it all and starting from the top again.

_My _eyes_ have not yet drunk a hundred words_

_Of_ thy will's_ utterance, yet I know the _sight_:_

_Art thou _no longer cross _and_ still my beloved_?_

Tom entertains the thought of closing the window again. He'd thought Harry was done—but _apparently not!_—and his cheeks _are_ a tad too warm to be comfortable. This isn't poetic at all, in fact Harry is _terrible_ for doing this, _terrible_ for butchering Shakespeare—perhaps even terrible for having the memory capacity to do this when he _should_ be studying for exams—and it could very well be the subject of their next fight if Tom keeps to his resolve and remains indignant, but it's three in the morning and it's becoming rather hard to stay angry at his boyfriend.

Tom doesn't know why, but his wand is still in his hand and he's flicked it before he can stop himself. "_Neither, fair saint, if either thee _please you_."_

It encourages a bubbly laugh out of Harry. Tom vaguely makes out his boyfriend muttering something along the lines of "I can't believe you did that" before he's frantically scribbling at his window again.

_What man art thou that thus _still holds a grudge_?_

_"How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore?__"_ Tom shoots back. Harry does little more than grin.

_With love's light _fins _did I _swim down _these walls;_

_For stony limits cannot hold love out,_

_And what love can do that dares love attempt;_

_Therefore thy _ire is_ no let to me._

They aren't Harry's words, Tom knows that. It's Shakespeare, and they're hardly Romeo and Juliet, so he doesn't exactly know what Harry is thinking, but it's hard to slow the pounding in his chest when he reads the last line. It's not how Harry would say it, but that Harry had written it nonetheless is—

Tom doesn't feel so alone anymore.

"_If _I_ do_ meet _thee, _I _will murder thee_," Tom writes without the vehemence that appears in the words.

_Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye_

_Than twenty of _thine curses_: look thou but sweet,_

_And I am proof against _thy_ enmity._

Impatiently, Tom stops with the Shakespeare quotes and instead writes, "I'm angry with you _now_."

Harry pouts. He waves his hand, and the words vanish. _I don't think so_, he scribbles, _you look rather sweet to me. Your cheeks are red, by the way._

It's a reflex when Tom slaps his hand to his cheeks—they _are_ warm, and undoubtedly red—before attempting a scowl and utterly failing at it when Harry once again dons his dopey lovesick smile… which is _disgusting_, by the way, even though it makes him want to do _things_ seeing Harry's upper torso is _also_ bare, and his pale skin is framed perfectly for Tom's private viewing—

Harry shivers. All of his indecent thoughts are gone as Tom notes this and frowns. "It's four in the morning," he writes with the flick of a wrist, "go back to your dorms. You'll catch a cold if you stay in the water any longer."

For some reason, Harry shakes his head. Tom scowls. His boyfriend can be stubborn at the _worst_ times. "_Harry_," he writes, emphasizing it with a jab of his wand.

_Dost thou love me_? The Gryffindor scribbles the words with a shaky hand.

"Harry, this is _not_ the time—"

_Dost thou love me?_ he writes again.

"Are you _seriously_—"

_Dost thou love me?_

It continues on for a while longer, Tom trying to write a reply and Harry repeating the question time and time again on Tom's window. It quickly fills up the glass, and when Harry is at the last available space, he writes instead, _If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully_.

Tom swallows. "If you insist,_ I'll frown and be perverse an say thee nay_."

_I know thou wilt say 'Ay__,'_ Harry scribbles frantically after erasing the repetition.

_In truth, _my _fair_ beloved, I_ am too fond,_

_And therefore thou mayst think my 'havior light:_

_But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove more true_

_Than those that have more cunning to be strange._

The Slytherin pauses. Harry is… Harry is rather determined, Tom sums up with a wry smile. It isn't that they'd never told each other, in their own hushed voices, an "I love you." Hardly that—they've said it their fair amount of times each, but each and every time, they were cautious. They never _urged_ the other to confess it, to have such words spill from the lips.

Each time was voluntary.

And now Harry _insists_ in this strange, horribly embarrassing manner and Tom finds himself hard pressed to form a reply, for all his own words that swirl in his mind and heart. Perhaps the only way to reply is, in fact, to further make use of Shakespeare's words. He sends his apologies up, along with curses made with the liberal usage of Merlin's, Circe's, and Salazar Slytherin's names.

_Although I joy in thee,_

_I have no joy of this contract to-night:_

_It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden;_

_Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be_

_Ere one can say 'It lightens.'_

Tom sees Harry frown at his rebuke, and though his chest tightens, the words remain floating in the air. Upon acknowledging his boyfriend's stubborn stance, Harry sighs—the bubbles are what make it visible—and begins his own reply, entirely reluctant to leave.

_O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?_

…Regardless to say, _Tom_ is not amused by his boyfriend's stubborn nature either. "_What satisfaction canst thou have to-night__?" _he writes with a haughty sniff.

_The exchange of thy love's faithful vow for mine._

His reply was quick and sharp. _"I gave thee mine before thou didst request it."_

Harry's scribble is just as fast, and if possible, even messier than it was before. _Wouldst thou withdraw it? for what purpose, love?_

And Tom throws away Shakespeare in that moment, for he would _never _take back what he'd said in the past. Even if Harry didn't know the extent of his influence on Tom, the Slytherin was acutely aware. No matter how many fights they'd gone through, no matter how many fights they're _going_ to go through, nothing could erase Harry's significance to him. He'd be a fool to forget.

"I would never withdraw my vow to you," he writes carefully, words accentuated by the sparks of his magic at his emotion, "even if it were to give it to you again. That moment you'd not have it would be a moment too long. And I dare not write it in repetition as a substitute, for what the quill and wand cannot express, the voice does, and if there is no voice, I'm afraid the essence of the first vow will reach you devoid of any vow in the first place."

Without a word or a scribble, Harry presses his hand against the glass of his window. Tom mirrors his action, and for a second feels the warmth of his hand through the barrier. Logically he knows this isn't possible, as the building is enchanted to stave off the chill of the Lakes, but looking at Harry now he fervently _wishes_.

"Go to sleep," he mouths.

"Are we okay?" Harry mouths back.

Tom's ensuing smile is full of mirth. "Only if you never do this again."

"Deal."

* * *

**T**he next morning, despite their relationship being back on track, Harry and Tom don't go to Hogsmeade. Instead, Harry makes a trip to the Hospital Wing, gets some potions for his terrible cold, and then, under the safety of his Invisibility Cloak, sneaks into the Slytherin Common Room and down into Tom's room to snuggle with his boyfriend.

"Achoo!" Harry sniffs, only to curl further into Tom's warmth after he's blown his nose for the _n_th time. An empty bowl is on the nightstand, its contents originally soup but all gone courtesy of Tom feeding him.

"You're _ridiculous_, Harry Potter."

And, despite the insulting manner of Tom's comment, it's _still_ followed by a hushed, "I love you" and a peppering of kisses when Harry blushes and stutters at the confession that he'd, a few hours ago, insisted on but hadn't gotten.

Tom argues that it was just "simply delayed."

Harry's just pleased that his boyfriend has gone back to taking—arguably _too much_—care of him.

* * *

**I am, admittedly, at fault for jumping on the "Tom is the overprotective dom" ****in the TMR/HP ship. I also admit to fully supporting the "Harry needs a partner who can take care of him, poor bby has been through so much" idea. **

**But, well, as long as I'm covering all my bases with a widespread amount of AUs for this pairing, _why not throw this into the mess too_. Besides, Hary gets taken care of at the end so everything is still A-OK with my sensibilities ;)**

**...Yeah I just wanted to write a oneshot. So, uh, you guys can have this.**

**Sincerely,**

**R.R.**


End file.
